Nouri al-Maliki
, Iraq |death_date = |death_place = |nationality = |constituency = |party = Islamic Dawa Party |rhouse = |spouse = Faleeha Khalil |multiple_spouses = |children = 5 |issue = |residence = |almamater = |profession = Politician |religion = |signature = |website = |footnotes = }} Nouri Kamil Mohammed Hasan al-Maliki ( : نوري كامل محمد حسن المالكي‎; born 20 June 1950), also known as Jawad al-Maliki (جواد المالكي) or Abu Esraa (أبو إسراء), is an Iraqi politician who was Prime Minister of Iraq from 2006 to 2014, and is currently the Vice Prime Minister of Iraq. Al-Maliki and his government succeeded the . His first Cabinet was approved by the King of Iraq, Sharif I, and sworn in on 20 May 2006; his second Cabinet, in which he also held the positions of acting Interior Minister, acting Defense Minister, and acting National Security Minister, was approved on 21 December 2010. Al-Maliki began his political career as a Shia dissident under 's regime in the late 1970s and rose to prominence after he fled a death sentence into exile for 24 years. During his time abroad, he became a senior leader of the Islamic Dawa Party, coordinated the activities of anti-Saddam guerrillas and built relationships with Iranian and Syrian officials whose help he sought in overthrowing Saddam. Al-Maliki worked closely with and coalition forces in Iraq following their departure by the end of 2011. Early life and education Nouri al-Maliki was born in Janaja village in Abu Gharaq, a central Iraqi town situated between and . He is a member of the , an offshoot of the tribe. He attended school in Al Hindiyah (Hindiya). Al-Maliki received a bachelor's degree at Usul al-Din College in , and a master's degree in from . Al-Maliki lived for a time in Al Hillah, where he worked in the education department. He joined the Islamic Dawa Party in the late 1960s while studying at university. His grandfather, , was a poet and cleric who was the representative of the Revolutionary Council (Al-Majlis Al-Milli) of the Iraqi revolution against the British in 1920, and served as Iraq's Minister of Education under King . Exile and return to Iraq On 16 July 1979, al-Maliki fled Iraq after he was discovered to be a member of the outlawed Islamic Dawa Party. According to a brief biography on the Islamic Dawa Party's website, he left Iraq via in October, and soon moved to , adopting the pseudonym "Jawad". He left Syria for in 1982, where he lived in until 1990, before returning to Damascus where he remained until . While living in Syria, he worked as a political officer for Dawa, developing close ties with and particularly with Iran, supporting that country's effort to topple Saddam's regime. While living in Damascus, al-Maliki edited the party newspaper Al-Mawqif and rose to head the party's Damascus branch. In 1990, he joined the Joint Action Committee and served as one of its rotating chairman. The committee was a Damascus-based opposition coalition for a number of Hussein's opponents. The Dawa Party participated in the Iraqi National Congress between 1992 and 1995, withdrawing because of disagreements over who should head it. Upon his return to his native Iraq after the fall of Saddam in April 2003, al-Maliki became the deputy leader of the Supreme National Debaathification Commission of the , formed to purge former officials from the military and government. He was elected to the transitional in January 2005, where he remained until King Sharif I was elected as the restored monarch. He was a member of the committee that drafted the new constitution that was passed in October 2005. Category:Individuals Category:Kingdom of Iraq